Emergency ejecting apparatus for optical disc drive

ABSTRACT

The present invention discloses an optical disc drive including a pickup head for reading data from a disc; a spindle motor for supporting and rotating the disc; a loading/ejecting apparatus for loading or ejecting the disc; and an emergency ejecting apparatus. The emergency ejecting apparatus includes a slider for connecting the loading/ejecting apparatus, a rack, and an elastic component for connecting the slider and the rack. When a user drives the slider and the elastic component is elastically deformed, the slider is moved in the optical disc drive to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus to eject the disc.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an optical disc drive, and moreparticularly to an optical disc drive having an emergency ejectingapparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A slot-in optical disc drive has the features of pretty appearance andeasy operation. A user can easily put a disc into the optical disc driveby a loading/ejecting apparatus of the slot-in optical disc drive. Ifthey want to eject the disc, they can push an ejecting button to drivethe loading/ejecting apparatus to eject the disc. Because theloading/ejecting apparatus is driven by the motor, when the system ofthe optical disc drive is broken or loses power, the loading/ejectingapparatus won't eject the disc automatically. At the time, it isnecessary to drive an emergency ejecting apparatus to eject the disc.

For example, the US patent publication number 2004/0223420 published toKazuo Yokota shows a slot-in optical disc drive 1 including an emergencyejecting apparatus for ejecting the disc manually. The optical discdrive 1 has a loading motor 21 connected to the emergency ejectingapparatus, and then the emergency ejecting apparatus is connected to aloading/ejecting apparatus. The loading/ejecting apparatus includes anejecting lever 17 and a guide lever 18. The loading motor 21 drives theemergency ejecting apparatus, and then the loading/ejecting apparatus isdriven to load or eject a disc. The emergency ejecting apparatusincludes a loading gear unit G1 and a rack gear unit G2 with specialstructure for meshing with the loading gear unit G1. Moreover, the backend of the rack gear unit G2 is connected to the loading/ejectingapparatus. The loading motor 21 drives the loading gear unit G1 so thatthe rack gear unit G2 moves in the optical disc drive, and then theloading/ejecting apparatus is driven to load or eject the disc by themovement of the rack gear unit G2.

When the optical disc drive 1 can't eject the disc automatically becauseof the system breaking down or the loss of the power, the loading motor21 can not drive the loading gear unit G1. Therefore, the loading gearunit G1 and the rack gear unit G2 are locked because they are meshedwith the loading motor 21. A user has to put an emergency pin P into athrough hole 3 b formed in the bezel 3 of the optical disc drive 1. Theposition of the through hole 3 b is set corresponding to the drivinggear set G1, so a user can insert the emergency pin P to loose theconnection between the loading gear unit G1 and the loading motor 21.When the loading gear unit G1 can rotate freely without beingconstrained by the loading motor 21, the user has to insert theemergency pin P into a through hole 3 c formed in the bezel 3 again. Theposition of the through hole 3 c is set corresponding to the rack gearunit G2 and the emergency pin P can push the rack gear unit G2 to movein the optical disc drive. Therefore, the loading/ejecting apparatus isdriven by the rack gear unit G2 to eject the disc.

However, the emergency ejecting apparatus described above comprises manycomponents. For example, the loading gear unit G1 not only has worm gear22 and double gears 23, 24, and 25, but also has a slider member 31, twopivotal support pins 28, and 32 and a tension coil spring 33. Theconnections of the components are very complex, so if one of them isuseless, the emergency ejecting apparatus can't eject a disc manually.Moreover, the more components of the emergency ejecting apparatus, thebigger size of the optical disc drive will be for installing theemergency ejecting apparatus.

Moreover, a user has to insert the emergency pin P into the through hole3 b and 3 c to drive the emergency ejecting apparatus to eject the disc.Also, a user has to make sure the manual ejection step is correct.Therefore, it's really inconvenient for a user to manually eject thedisc.

Therefore, the present invention is to find a way to decrease thecomponents of the emergency ejecting apparatus of the optical disc driveand to decrease the size of the optical disc drive for overcoming thedrawbacks of the emergency ejecting apparatus mentioned above.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, this invention is to provide an optical disc drive. Theoptical disc drive has an emergency ejecting apparatus which has simplestructure and easy operation. When the system of the optical disc driveis breaking down or the loss of power, a user can eject the disc bydriving the emergency ejecting apparatus manually.

Therefore, the present invention provides an optical disc driveincluding a pickup head for reading/writing data from/onto a disc; aspindle motor for supporting and rotating the disc; a loading/ejectingapparatus for loading or ejecting the disc; and an emergency ejectingapparatus including a slider for connecting the loading/ejectingapparatus, a rack, and an elastic component for connecting the sliderand the rack. When a user drives the slider, the elastic component willhave elastic deformation and then the slider is movable relative to therack. And then the user can drive the loading/ejecting apparatus toeject the disc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of this invention will become moreapparent in the following detailed description of the preferredembodiments of this invention, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of the opticaldisc drive of the present invention

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive loading anoptical disc as shown in FIG. 1

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive which isdriven manually to eject the disc as shown in FIG.1

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a second embodiment of the opticaldisc drive of the present invention

FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive which isdriven manually to eject the disc as shown in FIG. 4

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of a third embodiment of the opticaldisc drive of the present invention

FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive loading anoptical disc as shown in FIG. 6

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive which isdriven manually to eject the disc as shown in FIG. 6

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, it's a perspective view of the first embodiment ofan optical disc drive 1 of the present invention. The optical disc drive1 has an optical pickup head 2 for reading/writing the data from/onto adisc 16, a spindle motor 3 for supporting and rotating the disc 16, anda loading/ejecting apparatus 4 for loading or ejecting the disc 16.

Besides, the optical disc drive 1 also has a transmitting motor 5, aworm gear 6, a gear set 7, and an emergency ejecting apparatus 8. Theworm gear 6 is set on a rotating axle of the transmitting motor 5 andmeshed with the gear set 7. The gear set 7 is connected to the emergencyejecting apparatus 8, and the emergency ejecting apparatus 8 isconnected to the loading/ejecting apparatus 4. When the transmittingmotor 5 drives the worm gear 6 and the gear set 7 to rotate, theemergency ejecting apparatus 8 is moved in the optical disc drive 1because of the connections therebetween. And then the emergency ejectingapparatus 8 drives the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 to load or eject thedisc 16.

In this invention, since the structure of the loading/ejecting apparatus4 is not the relevant feature of the present invention, detaileddescriptions and drawings thereof are omitted herein for the sake ofbrevity.

Referring to FIG. 1, it is the first embodiment of the emergencyejecting apparatus 8 of the invention. The emergency ejecting apparatus8 includes a rack 9, an elastic component 10, and a slider 11, whereinthe slider 11 is connected with the rack 9 by the elastic component 10.When the transmitting motor 5 drives the rack 9 to move in the opticaldisc drive 1, the slider 11 is moved with the rack 9. The rack 9 hasteeth 91 and the gear set 7 is connected to the emergency ejectingapparatus 8 by meshing with the teeth 91 of the rack 9. When the opticaldisc drive 1 loads or ejects the disc 16, the power outputted by thetransmitting motor 5 drives the gear set 7 to rotate through the wormgear 6, and then the gear set 7 drives the emergency ejecting apparatus8 to move in the optical disc drive 1. And further, the emergencyejecting apparatus 8 drives the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 to load oreject the disc 16.

In the first embodiment, the elastic component 10 has a protrusion 101and a first and a second ends 102, 103 which are set on the slider 11and the rack 9, respectively as shown in FIG. 1. The protrusion 101 issemicircle and the rack has a concavity 92 corresponding to theprotrusion 101 for holding the protrusion 101 of the elastic component10. Therefore, the elastic component 10 is connected to the rack 9 byputting the protrusion 101 of the elastic component 10 into theconcavity 92 of the rack 9. The elastic component 10 constraints theslider 11 to move with the rack 9 when the rack 9 is driven by the gearset 7. And then the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 connected to theterminal of the slider 11 is moved to load or eject the disc 16.However, in the present invention, the first and the second ends 102,103 of the elastic component 10 can also be set on the rack 9, while theconcavity 92 is set on the slider 11 relatively to the protrusion 101.Moreover, the shape of the protrusion 101 is not limited to besemicircle, and it also can be other shapes, for example the ellipseshape.

Referring to FIG. 1, it shows a perspective view of the optical discdrive 1 without loading a disc of the present invention, while FIG. 2shows a perspective view of the optical disc drive 1 loading a disc. Asdescribed above, when the optical disc drive 1 loads the disc 16, thetransmitting motor 5 drives the worm gear 6 and the gear set 7. And thenthe rack 9 and the slider 11 are moved in the optical disc drive 1.Furthermore, the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 is driven to load the disc16 into the optical disc drive 1 as shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, theterminal of the slider 11 is not toward the back 12 of the optical discdrive 1. On the contrary, when the optical disc drive 1 ejects the disc16, the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 ejects the disc 16 and the terminalof the slider 11 is toward the back 12 of the optical disc drive 1 asshown in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, it's a perspective view of the optical disc drive 1that ejects the disc manually of the invention. When a disc 16 is loadedinto the optical disc drive 1 as shown in FIG. 2, and the optical discdrive 1 can't eject the disc 16 automatically by the transmitting motor5 because of the loss of the power or the broken system, thetransmitting motor 5, the worm gear 6, the gear set 7 and the rack 9 arein the locked state because they are meshed and connected with eachother. At the time, a user can manually drive the emergency ejectingapparatus 8 to eject the disc 16.

The user puts a pin 13 into a through hole on the bezel of the opticaldisc drive 1, and the through hole is set relatively to the slider 11.So the pin 13 can drive the slider 11 through the through hole. When theuser pushes the slider 11 by the pin 13, the protrusion 101 of theelastic component 10 is elastically deformed. And then the protrusion101 is not connected with the concavity 92 of the rack 9. Therefore, theslider 11 is moved toward the back 12 of the optical disc drive 1.Therefore, the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 connected to the slider 11is driven to eject the disc 16 as shown in FIG. 3.

Referring to FIG. 4, it's a perspective view of the second embodiment ofthe optical disc drive 1 of the invention. In the embodiment, thedirection of the action that the emergency ejecting apparatus 8 drivesthe loading/ejecting apparatus 4 to load or eject a disc is contrary tothe first embodiment. The other components and the numerals are the sameas the first embodiment.

In the embodiment, the emergency ejecting apparatus 8 of the opticaldisc drive 1 has the slider 11, the elastic component 10, the rack 9 anda rotator 14. The rotator 14 has a connector 141 and a board 142,wherein the connector 141 is connected to the slider 11 so that therotator 14 can rotate with the movement of the slider 11.

In the second embodiment, when the optical disc drive 1 loads the disc16, the transmitting motor 5 drives the worm gear 6 and the gear set 7.And then the gear set 7 drives the emergency ejecting apparatus 8 tomove toward the back 12 of the optical disc drive 1. So that theloading/ejecting apparatus 4 connected to the slider 11 is driven toload the disc 16 as shown in FIG. 4. When loading the disc 16, therotator 14 is rotated in the direction of arrow B during the movement ofthe slider 11. On the contrary, when the loading/ejecting apparatus 4ejects the disc 16, the slider 11 is moved in the direction of arrow Cand the rotator 14 is rotated in the direction of arrow A.

Referring to FIG. 5, it's a perspective view of the optical disc drive 1that ejects the disc manually of the invention. When a disc 16 is loadedinto the optical disc drive 1, as shown in FIG. 4, and the optical discdrive 1 can't eject the disc 16 by the transmitting motor 5 because ofthe loss of the power or the broken system, the transmitting motor 5,the worm gear 6, the gear set 7 and the rack 9 are in the locked statebecause they are meshed and connected with each other. At the time, auser can manually drive the emergency ejecting apparatus 8 to eject thedisc 16.

A user puts a pin 13 into a through hole on the bezel of the opticaldisc drive 1, and the through hole is set relatively to the position ofthe board 142 after the disc 16 is loaded. When the user forces therotator 14 to rotate in the direction of arrow A, the protrusion 101 ofthe elastic component 10 is elastically deformed. Then the protrusion101 is not connected with the concavity 92 of the rack 9. Therefore, theslider 11 is moved backward to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 toeject the disc 16 as shown in FIG. 5.

Referring FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, they are the perspective views of theoptical disc drive 1 loading and ejecting the disc 16 of the thirdembodiment. In the embodiment, the elastic component is a spring 15. Theother components and the numerals are the same as the first embodiment.Moreover, the actions of the optical disc drive 1 loading and ejectingthe disc 16 are the same as that of the first embodiment. Thetransmitting motor 5 drives the worm gear 6, the gear set 7 and theemergency ejecting apparatus 8 to load or eject the disc 16. When theloading/ejecting apparatus 4 eject the disc 16, the end of the slider 11is toward the back 12 of the optical disc drive 1 as shown in FIG. 6. Onthe contrary, when the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 loads the disc 16,the end of the slider 11 is not toward the back 12 of the optical discdrive 1 as shown in FIG. 7.

Referring to FIG. 8, it's a perspective view of the optical disc drive 1ejecting the disc manually of the embodiment. When the disc 16 is loadedinto the optical disc drive 1, as shown in FIG. 7, and the optical discdrive 1 can't eject the disc 16 by the transmitting motor 5 because ofthe loss of the power or the broken system, the transmitting motor 5,the worm gear 6, the gear set 7, and the rack 9 are in the locked statebecause they are meshed and connected with each other.

At the time, the user can put the pin 13 into the through hole on thebezel of the optical disc drive 1, and the through hole is setrelatively to the slider 11. Therefore, the user can push the slider 11by the pin 13. When the user forces the spring 15 to be elasticallydeformed, the slider 11 is pushed toward the back 12 of the optical discdrive 1. And then the loading/ejecting apparatus 4 is driven to ejectthe disc 16.

As described above, the optical disc drive of the invention has anemergency ejecting apparatus which is connected to a loading/ejectingapparatus to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus to load or eject thedisc. The emergency ejecting apparatus further includes a rack, aslider, and an elastic component. The slider is connected to the rack bythe elastic component and the slider is connected to theloading/ejecting apparatus. When the optical disc drive can't eject thedisc automatically, the user drives the slider to make the elasticdeformation of the elastic component. So that the slider is moved in theoptical disc drive to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus to eject thedisc. So the optical disc drive of the invention still can eject thedisc under the loss of the power or the broken system, and it also hasthe features of simple structures and easy operation.

While the invention has been described in connection with what isconsidered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it isunderstood that this invention is not limited to the disclosedembodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements includedwithin the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as toencompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.

1. An optical disc drive comprising: an optical pickup head forreading/writing the data from/onto a disc; a spindle motor forsupporting and rotating the disc; a loading/ejecting apparatus forloading or ejecting the disc; and an emergency ejecting apparatuscomprising: a rack; a slider connected to the loading/ejectingapparatus; and an elastic component for connecting the slider and therack; wherein the elastic component has a protrusion and two ends set onthe slider and the rack has a concavity corresponding to the protrusionfor connecting the protrusion; wherein, when a user drives the sliderand the elastic component is elastically deformed so that the protrusionis not connected to the concavity, the slider is moved in the opticaldisc drive to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus to eject the disc. 2.An optical disc drive comprising: an optical pickup head forreading/writing the data from/onto a disc; a spindle motor forsupporting and rotating the disc; a loading/ejecting apparatus forloading or ejecting the disc; and an emergency ejecting apparatuscomprising: a rack; a slider connected to the loading/ejectingapparatus; and an elastic component for connecting the slider and therack; wherein the elastic component has a protrusion and two ends set onthe rack and the slider has a concavity corresponding to the protrusionfor connecting the protrusion; wherein, when a user drives the sliderand the elastic component is elastically deformed so that the protrusionis not connected to the concavity, the slider is moved in the opticaldisc drive to drive the loading/ejecting apparatus to eject the disc.